Mattie's Blog and his Fight Against Osteosarcoma

Thank you for keeping Mattie's memory alive!

Dear Mattie Blog Readers,

It means a great deal to me that you take the time to write and to share your thoughts, feelings, and reflections on Mattie's battle and death. Your messages are very meaningful and help support me through very challenging times. I am forever grateful. As my readers know, I promised to write the blog for a year after Mattie's death, which would mean that I could technically have stopped writing on September 9, 2010. However, like my journey with grief there is so much that still needs to be processed and fortunately I have a willing support network still committed to reading. Therefore, the blog continues on. If I should find the need to stop writing, I assure you I will give you advanced notice. In the mean time, thank you for reading, thank you for having the courage to share this journey with me, and most importantly thank you for keeping Mattie's memory alive.

As Mattie would say, Ooga Booga (meaning, I LOVE YOU)! Vicki

December 24, 2020

Thursday, December 24, 2020

Thursday, December 24, 2020

Tonight's picture was taken in December of 2007. Mattie was 5 years old and he started a tradition of wearing his red antlers, a Christmas sweater, and pose with his Christmas train in the background. This photo was on the cover of our 2005 Christmas card.

Quote of the day: Today's coronavirus update from Johns Hopkins.

Number of people diagnosed with the virus: 18,634,141
Number of people who died from the virus: 328,849

Another busy day in "paradise." Things are challenging here as I start every morning at 6am. It is just non-stop chores, cooking, cleaning, laundry, and the list goes on. My dad and I have a routine, of brain games and walking up the block and back (which takes him about 20 minutes) right after breakfast. We then had his weekly visit from the in home nurse. Who is in my perspective a piece of work. Full of herself and everything has a way of coming back to her.

Given that Peter was cooking dinner tonight, it freed me up to walk with my mom. We walked about four miles, but it was rainy and raw today.

This evening, Peter and I baked the layers for a coconut layer cake. Which I will assemble tomorrow. Given my parent's small oven, I literally can only cook one thing at a time. It is very frustrating, not to mention that it doesn't keep a consistent temperature. So literally I never know what I am going to get as a result.

Peter's dinner tonight! A roasted pork loin with carrots, butternut squash and potatoes.

I cleaned the turkey tonight and it is bathing in a bath of lemon and orange juice in the refrigerator.

Last night we went for a walk. Here are some of the fun sights we saw. I liked the Christmas tree images projected onto this house.

This snowman has a light show going on which was adorable. I also loved the candy canes lining the sidewalk.

Frosty!

How do you like this candy cane arch?

We met the owner of this house last night. We told her we admired her display. She said that her husband put it all together himself. In California, there are companies that will decorate the whole outside of your house for you! I got to see some of these folks at work in November when I was here.